Prosecutors agree to allow in 14 repatriated Cubans

Posted on Thu, Mar. 16, 2006

Prosecutors agree to allow in 14 repatriated Cubans
BY VANESSA BLUM
South Florida Sun-Sentinel

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. - Stung by a federal judge's decision that 15
Cubans who landed on the Old Seven Mile Bridge in the Florida Keys
should have been allowed into the United States, federal prosecutors
have agreed to allow in most of the Cubans.

But government lawyers first want U.S. District Judge Federico Moreno to
retract his Feb. 28 decision that the bridge qualifies as U.S. soil.

Moreno's ruling, which was celebrated by many in the Cuban exile
community, ordered the government to use its best efforts to bring the
15 Cubans to the United States.

Government attorneys said they will consent to Moreno's demands, but
only if the judge first withdraws his 11-page ruling, which called the
Coast Guard's decision to repatriate the Cubans "unreasonable."

Lawyers for the Cubans signed off on the plan because it would allow
them to avoid further litigation and speed up efforts to bring their
clients to the United States.

"These are human beings with lives and families desperately seeking
their freedom," said Joseph Geller, one of the Cubans' attorneys. "All
of our actions have been taken with keen awareness these people's lives
are in our hands."

Moreno could respond as early as Friday.

If the judge approves the deal, the Department of Homeland Security will
issue the entry papers within 10 days of his decision, prosecutors said
in court documents. The Cubans would still face uncertainty, however,
because they cannot leave Cuba without permission from President Fidel
Castro's government.

The deal applies to 14 of the Cubans who did not have a criminal
background, medical issue or other problem, their lawyers said. U.S.
officials do not want to issue documents to Lazaro Jesus Martinez Jimenez.

Cuban activist Ramon Saul Sanchez said government lawyers made it clear
in negotiations that they were prepared to appeal Moreno's ruling.

Under the terms of the settlement agreement, the government agrees not
to appeal the judge's order, which would be wiped from the books.

"Our concern is that if the government were to appeal this decision, it
would take months, maybe years," said Sanchez, whose organization
Democracy Movement filed the suit on behalf of the Cubans. "I think
everybody was working together to see how effective we could be in
bringing people here and reuniting them with their families."

The Bush administration also may have wanted to end the matter quickly
and quietly, said University of Miami law professor David Abraham. He
said the case put the administration at odds with political allies in
the Cuban exile community.

"The government doesn't really want to win this case because the
government wants to curry favor with the Cuban community," Abraham said.

The Coast Guard took the 15 Cubans into custody at the Old Seven Mile
Bridge on Jan. 4. Federal officials repatriated them after Coast Guard
lawyers determined that the bridge did not qualify as U.S. territory
under the government's controversial "wet foot, dry foot" immigration
policy.

Cubans who touch U.S. soil, bridges, piers or rocks are allowed into the
United States, while those intercepted at sea usually are returned to Cuba.

Moreno slammed the Coast Guard's decision, calling it "implausible" and
"unpersuasive." However, he said his ruling dealt only with the specific
case and had no implications for the "wet foot, dry foot" policy.

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